1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a battery means for hand held electronic devices particularly to a self-contained battery packet for ordinary non-rechargeable and rechargeable battery that is able to fit securely at small size in a hand held electronic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Because of flourishing business development and technology innovation, a great number of portable and small size electronic devices and appliances have been introduced in the marketplace in recent years, such as cellular phone (also named as mobile phone), palm size Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Pager, electronic dictionary, electronic game set, wireless phone, hand held personal computer, walkman cassette player, calculator and the like. The theme of design for these devices mainly aims at small size, light weight, attractive appearance, high reliability and good value. Most of these devices also are powered by battery. FIGS. 1A and 1B show a typical PDA as an example. The PDA 1 has a battery chamber 2 located at a lateral side (usually near the bottom) for housing one or more batteries 3. The batteries 3 are protected and held in the battery chamber 3 by a base cover 4 which has a snap hook 5 engageable with a notch slot 6. The engagement between the snap hook 5 and the notch slot 6 is not reliable because of relatively small size and short length of the hook 5 and slot 6. Pushing the base cover 4 lightly or an accidental drop of the PDA 1 could disengage the base cover 4 from the PDA 1. The batteries 3 could easily get loose and dropping out of the chamber 2. When the batteries 3 have been held in the chamber 2 for a long time and aged, and results in battery liquid seeping out, it could cause corrosion of the PDA circuits and making the PDA break down. The design of such battery means also looks cheap without high value.
FIG. 1B shows another conventional PDA 7 which uses a non-standard rechargeable battery 8. The battery 8 is held in the PDA 7 by latching means 9 and has a plurality (usually four) of first electric contacts 11 coupleable with second electric contacts 10 located on the PDA. The latching means 9 still is not a reliable structure and easily results in the battery 8 breaking loose from the PDA under external force. The battery 8 is also relatively bulky and making the whole PDA become too thick and heavy.
There is another disadvantage for conventional battery means used in a PDA shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, i.e., standard battery is not interchangeable with non-standard rechargeable battery. For instance, the PDA 7 shown in FIG. 1B cannot use standard battery. While a special transformer may be provided for recharging the rechargeable battery 8, the rechargeable battery 8 is limited to a small range of specifications and is quite expensive.
In view of aforesaid disadvantages, it is therefore an object of this invention to provide a detachable and self-contained battery packet for hand held electronic devices that is more reliable, easy to use, applicable to standard battery and rechargeable battery and looks more sightly.
A preferred embodiment of the hand held electronic device having a battery means according to this invention includes a device body, an independent and detachable battery packet, at least one button and a control unit. The button and the control unit are located in the device body which further has an elongated battery chamber located in a lateral side for holding the battery packet.
The battery packet has a case to hold one or more standard non-rechargeable batteries or a non-standard rechargeable battery. The battery chamber has a lengthy flange to hold the battery packet securely therein without getting loose. The battery packet further has a plurality of electric contacts to couple with another set of electric contacts located in the battery chamber for electric transmission. The battery packet is a separated and detachable member and may be replaced whenever desired. The hazard of battery liquid contamination to the electronic device is thus greatly reduced. The battery packet may be made small size to match the electronic device. It looks more sightly and provides greater value.